Exploring Women's Suffrage through 50 Historic Treasures

March 15, 2020
This year marks the centennial of the ratification of the 19th amendment, which granted white women the right to vote. This unique, fascinating book carries the reader into the struggle surrounding the 19th amendment, presenting fifty essays about objects related to the people and events that inched the suffragists closer to success. These objects, now held in museums around the U.S., include a range of items from small (political buttons and sashes) to large (statues, furniture, and even buildings). Jenkins, a museum curator, is a wonderful guide, making the story clear and engaging. The reader will come away with a real understanding of the participants' many sacrifices at each stage of the story, which continues right up to the present day as essays discuss a pussy hat from the Women's March of 2017 and the continuing struggle for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. Related discussions of the quest for civil rights and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 round out this marvelous exploration of a slice of American history.Women in Focus: The 19th in 2020(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)